Category Archives: Sari Schorr

Blues Hall of Fame Singer Sari Schorr Recording New Album With Legendary Producer Mike Vernon and Performing Selected US Dates

“With a powerhouse voice and a band to match this lady will certainly entertain. With whispers of Joplin and Turner her honeyed tones will raise the roof off the marquee.” – BLUES ON THE FARM, UK

NYC – In January 2015 legendary producer Mike Vernon (Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall, Blue Horizon) was invited to receive a ‘Keeping The Blues Alive’ award at the prestigious International Blues Challenge in Memphis TN. This award, was not the only highlight of the weekend for Mike; the second was witnessing the performance of one of the most amazing female blues singers Mike had seen in years – SARI SCHORR.

So knocked out was he with Sari, Mike came out of retirement to produce an album with her. Already a consummate songwriter, with tracks on major labels, Sari has written or co-written most of the songs on her new album. This album recording is now well underway and delivers hard-driving Blues-Rock influenced by the late ’60s British Blues movement. Sari (who trained as an opera singer) mixes Blues, Rock, and Soul with concrete melodies and poetic lyrics to striking effect.

Years of touring the US and Europe with Joe Louis Walker and Poppa Chubby, brought Sari greater prominence throughout the blues world. Schorr was recently inducted into the New York Blues Hall of Fame.

Sari will celebrate the release of her debut album on Manhaton Records in 2016 and undertake a US and European tour. She kicks off her groundbreaking tour at Carnegie Hall NYC, performing at The Lead Belly Fest with Buddy Guy, Eric Burdon, Edgar Winter and Walter Trout, on February 4, 2016.

Says Sari, “I set out to write achingly honest songs about finding love, losing love, betrayal, addiction, and the beauty and the tragedy of this human experience. My life’s passion is to use music as a galvanizing force to repair, inspire and unite people. To get there, I had to come clean and stonewall any constraints on the writing and performance of the songs. Then I had to learn to trust my intuition. Making an album is like building a pyramid in the dark. You know what you want to end up with, but you don’t really know what you have until there’s some distance and light.

“My songs are rooted in the blues and honoring that long tradition is important to me. My style of songwriting draws heavily on contrasting melodic hooks with aching harmonies. Writing honest and inspired lyrics is always the goal. I rely heavily on imagery and play with double entendres. My influences are many and various and include Son House, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Lead Belly, Etta James, Bessie Smith, Freddie King, Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Peter Green, Robert Plant and Bob Dylan.

“The album was written in the US, UK, Spain, and Germany. The band recorded most of the basic tracks in London and Seville. I’m so honored to have such incomparable musicians on the album including Innes Sibun, Walter Trout, Oli Brown, John Baggott and the wonderful Martha Velez.”

Sari mixes a passion for music and with a duty of social responsibility. She has devoted her talent and energy to music projects of a grand scale for humanitarian causes. Most notable is her work on a “Toast to Freedom” for Amnesty International, where she collaborated with many musical legends including Warren Haynes, Levon Helm, Keb Mo’, Taj Mahal, Eric Burdon, and Carly Simon. Sari’s humanitarian efforts include work in Haiti and India. She founded Matters – a non-profit that draws attention to humanitarian causes through the arts.

Sari is a marathon runner, animal rights activist, and aspiring vegan. She is also a writer, philosopher and wanderer with an inquisitive nature. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband and pit bull triplets.

Sari’s new band THE ENGINE ROOM, features stunning British guitarist Innes Sibun, formerly with Robert Plant. Says Sari, “Making an authentic connection with my audience is everything to me. I can push my vocals to the limit when I feel the energy from the audience rush the stage. I’m transformed when people are consumed by my music.”

Band Members:
Innes Sibun (guitar) – Robert Plant
Anders Olinder (keys) – Glenn Hughes, PP Arnold, Peter Gabriel (sessions)
Mike Hellier (drums) – Mud Morganfield, Waterboys, James Hunter
Kevin Jefferies – Roger Taylor (with Jeff Beck), Mike Oldfield and Steve Harley
also US tour special guest:
Chris Bergson (guitar) – Hailed as “a serious talent” by Living Blues, Chris Bergson was inducted into the New York Blues Hall of Fame in February 2015. With MOJO Magazine’s #1 Blues Album of 2008, #2 Blues Album of 2011, and #3 Blues Album of 2014, New York guitarist/singer Chris Bergson has established himself as “one of the most inventive songwriters in modern blues music” (All Music Guide), creating his own blend of blues, roots and soul. Chris Bergson has performed and/or shared the stage with Hubert Sumlin, Levon Helm, B.B. King, Norah Jones, John Hammond, Etta James, and Bettye LaVette, to name just a few. (www.chrisbergson.com)

“New York vocalist Sari Schorr has the effortless range and sense of drama to give any song real purpose and tonight she connects with her showcase crowd as if delivering a personal message face to face.” – PETE FENESTRA, GET READY TO ROCK

“So, how far will Sari go? Somewhere towards the top of the glass ceiling of the Blues, for certain, as she is a genuine talent.” – DARREN WEALE, WRC

“Sari Schorr is a stunning vocalist, powerful, energized and engaging…. Sari Schorr and other members of the band took the song to church and made believers of us all.” – JIMI PATRICOL, BLUES 411

“Sari Schorr is the embodiment of the best the blues and beyond has to offer. Sari is definitely the next big blues diva that will sweep through the blues scene.” – DAVE FIELDS, BIG CITY RHYTHM & BLUES MAGAZINE

AWARDED: 2012 Best Performance by a Blues Singer in a Band. “The sensational Sari Schorr who channeled Janis Joplin and Tina Turner during the show by the Joe Louis Walker Band at B.B. King’s in August.” – BROADWAY WORLD

“A Phenomenal and Beautiful Singer who I like to say, ‘Let’s all her passion and artistry come out through her amazing voice.’” – TREVOR B. POWER, WNTI

“Bodacious-voiced new front singer Sari Schorr, whose power vocals are a hybrid of Janis Joplin and Tina Turner, with a touch of a contemporary female blues singer like Janiva Magness. Walker and Schorr reached an orgasmic climax on this section of the show with the Willie Dixon’s classic ‘I Just Want to Make Love to You’…and Schorr transitioning from a whisper to a wail like a car going from zero to 60 in an eye blink.” – STEPHEN HANKS

In closing Sari has this to impart, “The message of the album is to dream big, be fearless and imperfect, defeat anger with gratitude, embrace freedom, succeed then fail then succeed again, and know in the deepest darkness of your heart that there is a purpose to your beautiful and complicated life.”